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Tabor juggles pitchers perfectly, holds off Lakers for Class B amateur semifinal berth

marcus traxler, the daily republic, mitchell, s.d.
·4 min read

Aug. 10—MITCHELL — It's not every day that the starting pitcher gets a save in a game he started.

But the Tabor Bluebirds haven't gotten a chance to play in the final four at the Class B state amateur baseball tournament very often, so this wasn't just any game.

So after getting the start and getting pulled in the seventh inning, Tabor's Chase Kortan came back to the mound with no outs in the ninth inning and runners at second and third base. He then stranded those runners to seal an 8-6 quarterfinal round victory over Lake Norden on Thursday night at Cadwell Park.

Tabor, in the Class B state semifinals for the first time since 2011, faces either Winner/Colome or Lesterville in the 5:30 p.m. semifinal on Saturday.

It was a thrilling cap to a game that saw the Lakers lead 4-0 going to the bottom of the seventh inning, when the Bluebirds (11-8) scored eight runs on six hits to take an 8-4 lead. Lake Norden scored twice in the eighth but could not complete the comeback in the ninth.

Kortan came back in relief of Bryce Scieszinski, who recorded five outs of relief for Kortan in the seventh and eighth frames. Kortan induced a pair of groundouts to leave the runners in place and then after an intentional walk to load the bases, Tony Campbell lined out to second base for the final out.

"Sometimes there's moves that make you look smart and then there's moves where you might look not so smart," Tabor manager Chris Sutera said. "We went with the change and Chase made me look smart with that one."

"I've never done anything quite like that," Kortan said of returning to pitch. "You just try to stay ready for anything and it's baseball, anything can happen. ... We're fired up to keep playing."

Before it was an offensive shootout, it was a pitching duel. Lake Norden put 6-foot-8 pitcher Nicolai Arbach, who pitches collegiately at Dakota State, on the mound on Thursday. Arbach threw six scoreless innings — giving the Lakers 24 in a row to start the tournament — before getting into trouble in the seventh.

Down 4-0, Tabor got on the board with a bloop single behind third base from Beau Rothschadl, scoring Hunter Hallock. Arbach was pulled with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, only to be greeted by Wynot's Jalen Wiesler, who knifed a two-run double into right field to bring the game to 4-3. After an intentional walk to Riley Rothschadl to re-load the bases, Nolan Carda picked up an RBI single to left field and tied the game at 4-all.

After another pitching change, a two-run single from Kortan to give the Bluebirds the lead at 6-4, followed by a Hunter Hallock RBI sacrifice fly and a Joey Slama RBI single to put the Bluebirds up 8-4.

"We finally just started putting together some good at-bats and some good swings," Sutera said. "We knew if we got one or two going, we could put together a big inning and turned out that we needed all eight of those runs."

In the start, Kortan threw 6 1/3 innings with five hits and four runs (one earned) allowed, striking out seven, before adding another three outs to his final line. Riley Rothschadl finished with three hits and Wieseler had two RBIs.

Arbach finished 6 1/3 innings with five hits and four runs allowed and four punchouts. Jordon Johnson finished the day with the loss, allowing two hits and three runs without recording an out, with Josh Cleveland covering the final five outs with two hits and one run allowed.

Lake Norden (17-5) finished with six doubles, including two from Jackson Noem, who scored twice. Mitchell Noem and Cleveland each drove in two runs and Kevin Krumm had three RBIs and two runs scored.

Meanwhile, a lot of the 400-some people in the Bon Homme County burgh of Tabor will be back in Mitchell on Saturday, excited to see their team keep playing.

"There's a lot we've accomplished in Tabor in baseball and winning an amateur title is the only thing we still have to do," Kortan said. "We're playing on the weekend and we're going to try to make the most of it."

NOTES: The game had a 13-minute rain delay in the fourth inning when a pop-up shower moved through Mitchell. ... Riley Rothschadl, a Tabor Legion player who is signed to Augustana, is now 8-for-10 in the tournament, and he has reached base in 12 of 14 plate appearances in three games.